Two-dimensions
by CapturetheFinnick
Summary: In which it's just a photo, but it's also more than that. Written for a prompt on tumblr. Coming out to fans. Fluff.


_**So I found a bunch of fics on my tumblr that I never published here. This was originally written in March 2015 for a prompt someone gave me on tumblr.**_

* * *

"Maybe it could be seen as platonic?" Phil said tilting his head slightly, as if looking at it from a different angle would change the fact that Dan's lips were upon his.

"Fuck off Phil."

"People kiss their platonic friends all the time?"

"Do you shove your tongue down your friends' throats, Phil?"

"You can't tell that from the photo"

"My hand is up your shirt"

"Friendly cuddling"

"Jesus Christ Phil am I going to come home to you platonically fucking one of your friends"

"Maybe."

"Don't forget to use a condom."

"Got it."

Dan laughed. He guessed that if he had to be stalked and have his secrets exposed, he was glad it was with Phil.

The picture was everywhere, the hazy camera quality posted upon every blog wall, every twitter page. Dan had long since turned off the internet.

There was no mistaking it. And Dan could see it even when he shut his eyes, the outlines scratched onto the insides of his eyelids. Creeping on the inside of his throat. A tattoo he never wanted, marked onto his body and Dan wondered why people talked so much about the commitment of tattoos when everything was already inked upon the skin. Tattoos can be removed, memories cannot.

Phil's fingers held no substance as they stroked through his hair. _What's done is done. You can't turn back the clock._ Phil was like that. _There's no point worrying about things that are already done._ But then again Dan worried about everything. Sometimes he couldn't even open his mouth without worrying about the lilt of his voice. But it was changing. Slowly. He was growing into his skin.

The past wasn't locked away, in a chest, under the sea, it seeped into every day life. Its ink-filled hands stretching for the pale skin of Dan's arm and he couldn't bear to throw away the key, his fingers curled around it. Phil had no idea where his key was.

"They _know."_ Dan turned to Phil, whispering, and Phil laughed "They sure do."

Dan wondered how he could be so relaxed, he listened close for Phil's pulse against his ear; normal. He slowly looked up towards his throat, tilting his head back down again to look at his arm. No muscles were tensed, none were taunt. His pupils relaxed as they followed the television screen.

"What are you doing?" Phil laughed, his mouth turning upwards at the corners. Dan's fingers curled closer around his chest.

"What are we going to do?" "They know Phil, they _know._ "

"Yes." He said, sitting up so that his eyes were level with Dan's. "Yes, and they know that it gets cold in winter and warm in summer, they know that the earth rotates around the sun and that we have one moon, they know England has a queen and that if you try and sit on a cloud you'll fall straight through and that if you touch a flame it'll burn. Information is not exclusive."

"But they'll look at us differently."

Phil seemed to laugh a little. It didn't seem cruel and mocking but rather light, his lips deliberating before opening.

"Every piece of information shifts a person's perception, when they saw your earrings, when you got your haircut, when you moved in here, a person's perception changes every day."

Dan just stared, feeling the waves of Phil's calmness weave amongst his words, rolling into him like sea to the sand.

Phil smiled, "besides most of them already knew."

"Guessed." Dan stressed.

Phil tilted his head, "Uma Thurman just watched me have sex."

Dan blushed, "that was ages ago."

"People, like elephants, don't forget."

"You're so stupid."

Phil leant down to kiss him, letting his hand cradle the back of his head, pushing him backwards into the sofa.

"This is the opposite of a solution." Dan grinned,

"Wow you really are fixated"

"And you are really not, you're like trying to catch a butterfly."

"Am I as pretty as a butterfly?" Phil said, batting his eyelids.

"Prettier."

Phil smiled, sitting up a little, pulling his phone from his pocket, lighting up the screen saver of their two faces smiling from a capsule, backed by a Manchester that looked a lot prettier from the air than from the ground. Dan wondered when he was going to change it. Dan changed his almost every week.

"What are you doing?"

"Shh" he said, positioning the phone just slightly above their heads, his lips pressing against Dan, the flash hitting their faces.

"Do you want to tweet it or should I?"

"What?"

"We're gonna confirm it."

"Confirm what?"

"The relationship."

"Via a photo."

"Yeah, a video's a bit much don't you think, plus then it makes it look like it's going to change things."

"Wow a video's too much for hipster Phil?"

"I don't think you can consider a photo 'hipster' they've literally been around since the dawn of time."

"The dawn of time? Phil, really?"

"Yeah really, I bet the dinosaurs were great at selfies."

"Not T-Rex's."

"Not T-Rex's." Phil laughed, "So I'll put it on mine, then?"

"At least let me look at it!"

Phil rolled his eyes, "you look fine." He said, turning the screen around.

"Wow, fine, such a compliment."

"You shine brighter than all the stars in the sky."

"Slightly better."

"I look awful, we need to take it again."

"You just want another excuse to kiss me."

"Shut up."

"I'm not spending the afternoon taking pictures of us kissing, this isn't some kind of indie movie."

"Fine at least let me pick a decent filter."

"Amaro."

"Are you fucking kidding me?"

"What?"

"Earlybird is clearly the best"

"Like you know anything about filters."

"Says you, mr I-haven't-uploaded-a-picture-in-50-years"

"We're not going to argue about filters." Phil laughed, "Just go with whatever you want and have it done with."

"Earlybird it is."

Phil shook his head, "It's a good job I love you."

"You would have no chance even if you didn't, no one can beat me in an argument"

"Maybe you're right."

Dan's finger hovered over the button. There seemed to be an electrical current running between the screen and his thumb, like two magnets repelling, Dan felt his breath grow a little deeper. _It's just a button. It changes nothing._ But of course it wasn't. Nothing is ever two-dimensional, not even our unconscious dreams; manifesto content and latent content. The real meaning and what it represents. The button and the representation of the button; the representation of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people casting a different light over his face, analysing the shadows in a whole new way. The representation of the comments, _you lied to us,_ but it wasn't really a lie, _so in what other ways are you a fraud,_ but it was just a bending of the truth, _eww fag,_ and then there was that.

Dan breathed again.

"Like a plaster, quick and fast." Phil urged.

"You know I can't do that with plasters."

"Because you're a baby."

"Because I am cautious."

"Normalness leads to sadness."

"Are you fucking quoting yourself now?"

"I'm an inspiration."

"Shut the fuck up."

"No" Phil said, letting his lips hit Dan's, his thumb sneaking where the phone lay unattended. His thumb slipping under Dan's hand, pressing the button, a small smirk lighting up his face. It was sending. Going. Going. Gone.

"You're such a sneak!"

"One and only, another episode of Buffy?"

Dan shook his head ever so slightly, before defeat washed over his face, "Sure."

His breathing was even, his muscles melting into the sofa, blending together with Phil's own, and he found he could shut his eyes and only see blackness. And he found it was a relief. He found that the anxiety that had burned in his throat every time he thought about the moment was gone, years of waiting, and it was done, and he didn't even feel stressed. He wondered whether Phil really did contain the magical qualities he was always joking about. And his grip tightened a little closer around his chest. It wasn't even a wave of relief, it was just happiness, happiness tingling within his chest and a strength, whatever that meant. He felt strong. He smiled.

* * *

 _ **Thanks for reading!**_


End file.
